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Kathy, (aka "Bessie"), and I began our beekeeping experience in the fall of 2008, when we began a year-long course in beekeeping through the Indian Creek Nature Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We got our first package of bees in April of 2009. At the suggestion of our daughter, Jessica, we are logging our beekeeping experience. Hope you find it interesting. It has been interesting, rewarding and entertaining for us as well.

Queen cell--maybe

I spotted what looks to be a queen cell in hive #1 today, so possibly they are making a queen after all. One cell was on the middle of a frame, with the opening pointing down and a larva in it, attended by a couple bees. I did put a frame with young larva in from hive #2 and will try to do so once a week for a couple weeks. There were a lot of capped cells and young larva in #1, so the queen must be alive and well. Since there would still be some larva after one week, there should not be any next week if the queen is absent.
I also checked on the nuc. No sign of a queen cell there though there is still some uncapped larva. I'll wait and see on that.

Little 4 frame nuc

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